Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

After getting such a successful response to my last thread which had me stumped for some while I thought I’d ask this as well.

Some have huge cracks, some have small cracks but it seems as though the famous square dash is renouned for cracking and unfortunately mine has cracked like something awful. Grand Canyon does spring to mind.

What are the repair options with the cracked dashes? I have had an eye out on the famous auction site and I have seen only one that was worth putting in a car and unfortunately that one was north of £600.

Is it possible to repair these at home? I’ve seen some threads of dash repair in America where the dash material is removed, repaired with some sort of dash bondo and recovered. However having searched in the uk I can’t seem to find any of the items I’d need to repair a dash, truth be told I don’t actually know what I’m looking for which probably doesn’t help!

Is it possible to repair a very cracked square dash and if so what’s the best method to go around it?

Thanks for any help in advance.

Plenty of dash covers on afore mentioned site.

Have a read

https://www.frost.co.uk/how-to-repair-a ... ash-filler

..or buy a new remanufactured one...https://translate.google.co.uk/translat ... rev=search - go to shop

Im currently installing a werk924 one in mine now. In fact the first rhd brown one they have sold.
Colour match and grain pattern is perfect.

Thanks very much for the replies.

The problem with the dash covers is that the extend of the cracks in my dash are pretty phenomenal, for example it’s cracked above the dials and lost a lot of its shape and this would be clearly visible through a dash cover.

Thank you for the link to the reproduction dashboards, they certainly look decent but at nearly €700 it’s a bit more than I’m prepared to pay at the moment.

I have found a foam dash repair guide which I’m eager to have a go at, so I will now try to locate a spare square dash and update with how the repair goes.

Thanks again.

Hi there.

I recovered my dash last year. I bought some stretchy vinyl from Woolies and applied this by stretching and using a hot air gun. I repaired the cracks with bumper repair filler and sanded the whole dash to get a good key. I used a good contact adhesive and applied this over small areas at a time. I started in the centre and worked out to either end. It took me a whole day.

The material only stretches in one plane so when you cut it out, cut your pattern at 45 degrees to the stretch direction.

If I can find them, I will post up some pictures of the process. By the way, I removed the dash from the car to recover it.

David

Thank you very much for that indeed david. It’s confirmed it is possible. I would be very interested in seeing some photos of how it’s come out.

Did you remove the current vinyl skin from the dash or did you do the repairs on top of this? I will have to have a little google and try to find the material you used. What contact adhesive did you use? I’ve read some can melt and fail after some time.

Thanks.

Hi,

Don't take the original vinyl off. Cut the cracks into a v section and fill with the bumper filler. Sand whole surface with a medium grit sandpaper (dry). I only recovered down to the swag line. When you start with the adhesive (at the centre line), only apply light stretch. You will need max stretch and heat when you get to the reversed curves at the end.

Woolies phone no is 01778 347347. If you ring them and tell them what you want to do, they will send you swatches so that you can match up the colour and grain. They will advise you on adhesive (I can't remember what I used but I know that I bought it locally).

FYI, I bought 2 metres of expanded vinyl- Brown, cat no 25 - BR which cost me about £45. Another tenner for the glue.

Tricky bits are the ends where they fold back against the door shut. This is hidden when the doors are shut. Also, it is very difficult to get a good finish in the demist vents. I was lucky that a previous owner had fitted vent trims so that I could hide this area.

Struggling to upload pics on here, if you pm me you email address, l will have a go at sending them to you direct.

David